Review: Mac mini (M2 Pro) 2023!

My thoughts on the Mac mini with M2 Pro chip. TLDR; at $1299 it's an excellent machine for "pro" work, as long as you keep it within reason.

Comment: 📝 Let me know what you think...

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[riskin]

SO GLAD Jeff Benjamin has returned to the channel! I hope it's not a one-off. Welcome back, Jeff. You were missed!

[IJones]

M2 Pro Mac Mini 16 gb ram has been flawless, especially with all the steam games I got for the mac. Coming from a intel Mac Mini 2012 16gb ram and 2020 Macbook air 8gb ram.

[drsmith]

Great job, Jeff! My main complaint as an Apple fanboy, is that the upgrade prices are ridiculous.

I get why they use $200 increments on storage and memory upgrades, it is easy to watch the price increase and make comparisons. But, I just don’t understand why it costs $400 to add 16GB of storage to the pro chip. But, on the Max chip, you get an additional 32GB on the Max chip for the same $400. Similar arguments exist on the storage options. I’m not against Apple making money. I suspect Apple might make more money, if the upgrades were better priced. Of course I am not paid to make that decision. Done with the rant.

[TrollMeister_]

Got delivery of my m2 pro mini/32gb/1 tb a couple of days back. Don’t want to do anything too fancy. Just edit 4k videos from my iPhone pro max and my LUMIX mirrorless. My God… for my needs this thing just blazes ! No more halting playback. Leaves my intel i7 mackbook pro in the dust ! Well done Apple. I am also glad I got only 1 tb of ssd and supplemented with an external Sandisk extreme ssd. Great combo

[ThomasGodart]

Man, the HDR is beautiful on this video, great work!

[BomberManTech]

So glad you back Jeff!! And this video touched on the hdmi port which not many have.

[marcopervo]

With it's increased clock/memory speeds and optimized CPU/GPU cores, the M2 Pro matches up closely with the performance of the M1 Max Studio. The main decisions between choosing either one are if you can utilize the additional ports, GPU cores and 64GB of memory option on the Studio.

[parkofile]

Jeff, glad your are back. Nice Review!

[jimcabezola]

Enjoying your video on my M1 Mac Mini!

[phykios]

Jeff please upload more videos, this channel is just not the same without you. Your videos are the only ones I watch on this channel, your style and quality of videos are just next level.

[tyemiller]

Good to have you back reviewing on 9-5 Mac. This review is timely…I have 2011 mac mini and planning to up grade…been considering the mac mini m2 pro…however, was not sure if it would be worth the price for my application…please to note my initial thoughts were right on and now plan to purchase the M2 mac mini pro….again, thank you for the review!

[deanzaZZR]

I can foresee a used M2 Pro Mac Mini years in the future. For now my M1 Mac Mini with 16 GB is humming along just fine (super speedy to be honest).

[EyesOfByes]

The craziest thing is that the logic board would probably fit in the Nvidia Shield (cylinder base version), and could be cooled if it the thing was made of mostly cooper. Heavy but slim

[macjeffff]

Jeff Benjamin’s videos are the best. If I were any of the other guys on the channel, I’d hide my head in shame. Good to see Jeff back on 9 to 5 Mac. Jeff has more class and polish than just about anyone on YT.

[pauljazzman]

Just the review I wanted to see. I have gone for the Mac mini M2 pro binned version with 16GB ram and 1TB ssd. A lot of bang for buck

[mvp_kryptonite]

Great little device but could have had a redesign (although we all don’t mind it I bet). Is the Studio then been retired now the Mac Pro is on the horizon, still wishing the M Extreme chip comes out so there is room for the Studio

[StratsRUs]

I really appreciate your great guidance and explanations about everything that I needed to know.
Thank you

[DojoOfCool]

My 27" iMac acted up the other night and I went to bed thinking about no more 27" iMac what would i replace it with if necessary?. After thinking about MBP and external monitor I thought about my use case of doing audio and checked out the Mac Mini I forgot they made one with a M2 Pro chip then I felt it would be the perfect solution. I know a lot of songwriters and small recording studio have been using Intel Mac Mini's and many still do. When it come to working in audio a lot of software still isn't OSX Ventura and/or Apple Silicon compatible that's why some studios are still working using Intel Mac Mini's. Maybe someday Apple will realize a lot of Mac are being used for audio and stop just catering to video creators. So if my 27" iMac was to stop working I'd probably get a Mac Mini and a Apple Studio Display together it would be a small but powerful setup with lots of available ports for audio gear and instruments to plug into.

[smgumbycat]

The Mac mini M2 Pro is my computer. If Mac Studio M2 Max was available when I purchased my Mac mini, I might have bought it. I have no regrets with the Mac mini M2 Pro.

[Qoonutz]

I am very happy with my Mac Mini M2 Pro at 32/1 configuration.